VISUAL AFFORDANCE, LANDSCAPE, AND THE MEGALITHS OF ALDERNEY

The core of this paper seeks to make a methodological contribution to the GIS-based analysis of visibility as a potential locational factor in past landscape placement, an area of study whose utility and value have been hotly debated by archaeologists keen to promote more experiential approaches to the interpretation of past landscapes. In doing so it seeks to break with recent discussions on the topic by not show-casing new or technically more sophisticated sets of approaches. Instead it backtracks to reclaim a methodology introduced over a decade ago, yet rarely applied in routine archaeological practice – a case of taking one step back to advance two steps forward. An important subtext is that for the utility of GIS-based work to be appreciated, it has to be driven by a clear archaeological research programme. To this end the study is fully embedded in a current research initiative exploring the megalithic monuments of prehistoric Alderney, the northernmost of the Channel Islands.